See what Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch had to say following his side’s 138-point loss to Adelaide on Saturday night.
On the gulf of AFL experience between the two teams…
“I would have thought it’s pretty simple when you look at the side we have out there. It’s boys against men, probably half our team shouldn’t be playing.
“We’re wounded as a footy club, there’s no doubt because we don’t even have replacements to bring in.
“We’ve got young kids looking for that finish line, I think we had five first-year players in today, probably a third of our best team aren’t playing.”
On matching up against a Crows side pushing towards finals…
“It is a tough challenge for those boys to come here in a year where Adelaide’s playing for a percentage driven victory as well.”
“They were pretty hungry and they’re just too big on the inside, too much run on the outside.
“When the dam wall opens and they realise the guy they’re playing on is faster, more agile, stronger, breaks tackles and that eventually wears away at the particular individual.”
“We’ve come up against the bigger teams the last couple of weeks and get out-run, out-muscled. That is years in the gym as well.”
Don Pyke praises professionalism
On Brisbane’s costly turnovers…
“We tried an offensive game style today, we wanted to keep the ball boundary side and they pushed us out of the way and we still got smashed on turnover.
“That same turnover number is there every week and we’ve tried a couple of different styles but at the end of the day you have still got to be able to win those contests at the coalface and not get pushed aside.”
On the mentality of his senior players during a tough period at the club…
“I feel for our senior guys, particularly guys like (Tom Rockliff) and (Dayne Zorko). They’ve been at this club a long time and we haven’t given them a lot of success.
“They got to hold up a lot, they got to play with a lot of young kids and it must be draining for them to do that and get up week in, week out.
“We know where we’re going with the young brigade but we just have to make sure we care for those (older) guys as well, because they’re doing a big job trying to hold together a lot of young boys around them.”
